Philippines: ‘Not today’: Palace to submit proposed 2020 budget ‘maybe in two weeks’

• The executive department is expected to submit its proposed PHP4.1tr national budget for 2020 to Congress within the next two weeks, Malacañang said 22 Jul 19.
• Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the executive department could still comply with the timeline provided under the 1987 Constitution.
• “[The] constitution provides it will be submitted within 30 days after SONA. So we still have time,” the Cabinet secretary said.
• Previous Budget secretaries had submitted proposed expenditure programs on the day of the SONA, which marks the opening of each regular session of Congress.
• Budget department officer-in-charge Janet Abuel told reporters recently that her agency would coordinate first with other agencies and Congress before submitting the expenditure bill to the legislature.
• The proposed 2020 budget is higher by 9.1% than 2019’s PHP3.7tr outlay.
• The delayed passage of the 2019 budget “led the government to miss the opportunity to create as many as 260,000 to 320,000 more jobs, affecting the construction, public administration and defense, wholesale and retail trade, land transport and education sectors,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said in May 19.
• Because the budget bill was not passed by the end of 2018, the government had to operate on a reenacted budget. This was the first time that that had happened since the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

External Link : https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/07/22/1936937/not-today-palace-submit-proposed-2020-budget-maybe-two-weeks